Young Black Male With Strong Family example essay topic

Family is a basic unit in every society. However, the makeup of a family is more complex to define. There are so many types of families that it is impossible to have one distinct definition in trying to explain how a true family is defined. For example, there are married couples with or without children, single-parent families, and even families headed by gay men or lesbians. These may not have been considered families not too long ago, but now must be recognized because we live in such a diverse society.

What I want to focus on is the African-American family, in terms of what they had to go through before, during, and after slavery. As well as, where they are now and where it's going in the future. When Africans were brought to America during slavery they were forced to give up most of their heritage and were usually separated from their families. This common occurrence usually brought about tremendous pain and grief to the slaves. "West Africa family systems were severely repressed throughout the New World (Guttman n, 1976) ". Some slaves tried to continue practices, such as polygamy, that were a part of traditional African cultures but were unsuccessful.

However, they were successful in continuing the traditional African emphasis on the extended family. In the extended family, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents played important roles. Slaves weren't allowed to marry, but they didn't let that stop them, they created their own marriages. And through all the hardships they had placed on them, they developed strong emotional bonds and family ties. The slaves discouraged casual sexual relationships and placed a lot emphasis on marriage and stability. To maintain some family identity, parents named their children after themselves or other relatives or sometimes gave them African names.

Slaves had no control over their lives. Their slave owners made all decisions that had anything to with the slaves. Slave families worked for their masters. The women worked right beside the men. When slavery finally ended and freedom came, former slaves began to renew their marriage vows since they were now able to legally marry. Former slaves also began to search for lost relatives throughout the south, but few were ever reunited.

Things still weren't that great as African-American families were still poor and tied to the land. Despite the hardships, however, families usually consisted of both parents (Strong et. al). The extended family also played an important role. Extended Family As I stated before the extended family has played an important role in African-American families throughout history. Extended family is made up of the family that is outside of your immediate nuclear family, your uncles, aunts, grandparents and / or cousins. I don't come from a nuclear family, instead I'm from a single-parent family, so my mom usually depended on some members of our extended family to help 'get by'.

Even now, I'm living with my grandparents, so my extended family has always played an important role, at least to this point, in my life. The extended family is sometimes used as an economic unit. African American families are especially known for this type of households. It allows the family to use resources and exchange goods and services, and other things that probably wouldn't possible if they were on their own (Dickerson, 1995). This type of living arrangement goes back to West African cultures. For example, in the Ashanti tribe young women remained in their family compound because the mothers weren't believed to be able to manage on their on.

So they stayed and received help from the older women in the tribe and other young mothers to help care for the children (Dickerson, 1995). An extended family gives children someone other than their mother or father to relate to (Staples, 1994). It can be viewed as a special friendship that isn't shared with either of the parents. As effective and helping as the extended family has been, its starting to be appreciated less throughout the Black family. This is starting to happen mainly because Blacks are moving from areas that they were raised for practically their whole lives.

They move to places where there aren't any friends or relatives in the immediate neighborhoods of communities. Another reason is that the attitudes of the Black youth toward the elders have changed (Staples, 1994). Younger adults are not as responsive to the wisdom and guidance of the older generations as they once were. Grandmothers are probably the most important members of the Black family, other than the mother and father. Usually after all the children have grown up and moved out on their own, the parents get to relax and enjoy their time to themselves. But sometimes un-controlling factors cut this time short.

Factors such as limited income, widowhood, or poor health usually require their children to move back, with their children (Staples, 1995). Grandmothers can assume a variety of roles, from primary parent to just sharing the burden of childcare with her daughter. More often than not when the grandmother took on such a primary role in the raising of the grandchildren, it was because the mother was still young and wasn't ready to take on the responsibility alone. According to Bette J. Dickerson and Susan M. George, resources that were once plentiful in the extended family are becoming scarce.

Partly because of multiple generations of adolescents and single mothers are creating younger grandmothers. These grandmothers themselves are working, and are not ready and sometimes unwilling to accept their role as grandmothers. This leaves it depleted and no longer able to be that "safety net" as it was traditionally (154). Fathers father's role is so important in the development of children. Unfortunately for black children there is a lack of black fathers in the household. According to an article written by Max Smith, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies showed that in 1998 approximately 62% of black children lived in single-parent households, as compared to 26% of white children.

Women maintain Ninety-one percent of black single-parent households. And though no one would argue that it is better to have a child in a dysfunctional two-parent household than in a loving home headed by a single female, it is also overwhelmingly obvious that the lack of two-parent households and the absence of black men in the lives of black children, particularly black male children, has seriously contributed to many of the pathologies now confronting our community (Smith, 2001). The role of the black father in the development of children is sometimes portrayed as an invisible one and is often assumed to have no interest in their children. According to John McAdoo, Black Families, that the better economic stability of the family, the more active the Black father was in the socialization of the children. They took an equal part of raising the child, as is the case in other ethnic groups (McAdoo, 234). Furthermore, he argues that Black fathers love their children and it's not unusual for a father to act out in ways that was usually assigned to women, toward the children.

Barbera L. Hyde and Margaret Texidor write that "slavery forced responsibility on Black women that were in conflict with the conventional relationship between the feminine and masculine roles (Staples, 157). This gave women a sense of superiority over Black men. The father's role became almost obsolete, denying the Black father his sociological and economic functions in the family (Staples, 158). Conclusion The Black family has very long and storied history. As young Black male with strong family ties I would like to see other young Black males step up and take actions for their responsibilities. Become aware that it is important for us as a people to realize that we are not an "endangered species".

If we do the things it will be a step in the right direction and we can move on to bigger and better things.

Bibliography

Dickerson, Bette J. 1995.
African American Single Mothers: Understanding their lives and Families. Sage Publications. Thousand Oaks. Guttman, Herbert. 1972.
The Black Family: From Slavery to Freedom. New York: Pantheon. McAdoo H.P. (edited) 1981.
Black Families. Beverly Hills: Sage Pub. Spencer, Margaret B., Gerald Brookings, and walter Allen. 1985.
Beginnings: The Social and Affective Development of Black Children. Hillsdale, N.J. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Staples, Robert. 1995.
The Black Family: Essays and Studies. Belmont, C.A. Wadsworth publishing. Strong, Bryan. 1998.